s of their
numbers at their first organization a few years ago, and who has kept
his eyes about him since, need ask. That they have not, thus far, been
more successful, is owing to the vastness of the undertaking, and the
difficulties with which they have had to contend, from comparatively
limited means, for presenting their measures and objects, with the
proper developments and explanations, to the great mass of the popular
mind. The progress of their principles, under the same amount of
intelligence in presenting them, and where no peculiar causes of
prejudice exist in the minds of the hearers, is generally proportioned
to the degree of religious and intellectual worth prevailing in the
different sections of the country where the subject is introduced. I
know no instance, in which any one notoriously profane or intemperate,
or licentious, or of openly irreligious _practice_, has professed,
cordially to have received our principles.

"6. _What is the object your associations aim at? Does it extend to
abolition of slavery only in the District of Columbia, or in the whole
slave country_?"

ANSWER.--This question is fully answered in the second Article of the
Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which is in
these words:--

"The object of this society is the entire abolition of slavery in the
United States. While it admits that each state, in which slavery exists,
has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to
_legislate_ in regard to its abolition in said state, it shall aim to
convince all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their
understandings and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime in
the sight of God, and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all
concerned require its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. The
society will also endeavor, in a constitutional way, to influence
Congress to put an end to the domestic slave-trade, and to abolish
slavery in all those portions of our common country which come under its
control, especially in the District of Columbia; and likewise to prevent
the extension of it to any state that may hereafter be admitted to
the Union."

Other objects, accompanied by a pledge of peace, are stated in the third
article of the Constitution,--

"This Society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the
people of color, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and religious
improvement, and by removing pu